One of the best things about watchmaking as a discipline is the way in which it consists of both a scientific and an artistic discipline. While at its core a wristwatch is about displaying time (scientific), there is a great amount of license when it comes to how a watch displays the time (artistic). Nowhere is that clearer than the unusual time display of the Mandetbrote Orbital, which earned it a place on the long-list of the GPHG Mechanical Exception category 2025, alongside the likes of Jacob & Co. and Greubel Forsey, despite being a sub-£500 watch. I got hands-on to learn more.
Starting with the display, it’s immediately striking for its bizarre layout. A single track traces its way around the edge of the dial before looping back on itself around the central hand and continuing back on its way again. This is the minute scale, as denoted by the 60 dots it’s comprised of, along with bolder 5-minute markers along the way. In order to point at the looping scale, the centre hand is split into two sections with an extra gear so that the hand actually folds in on itself to follow the track.
What that means is that a full extension vertical arrow denotes 0-minutes past the hour but a half-extension vertical arrow denotes the half-hour. The hours themselves are read from a rotating disc that’s revealed at the bottom of the display. Once you understand the Mandetbrote Orbital’s display, it’s as intuitive as any other method of reading the time, it’s just one that no other brand is doing. The dial beneath the central hand features a radial fluted pattern available in a range of colours from the sleek black here to dramatic multi-coloured options.
Though fair warning, it’s also a display that you’ll probably spend more time adjusting to show the windmilling minute hand to your friends than letting it do its thing. It’s just that satisfying to use. Plus, the motion of the crown is incredibly smooth when you use it.
The case itself is also very smooth with a round bezel and domed sapphire crystal glass that brings the thickness to 13mm. For diameter it measures 41.2mm with a lug-to-lug of 48mm. Keeping the watch on your wrist is a leather strap with butterfly clasp, which when you undo and slide the watch off your wrist reveals an exhibition caseback.
Through said caseback is the Miyota 9015 automatic, which has been slightly modified to accommodate the twin-gear minute hand and hour disc display. It offers a 42-hour power reserve and -10/+30 seconds per day accuracy. The adaptation of a workhorse movement is the final part in the Mandetbrote Orbital puzzle because it helps make the watch hyper accessible despite its innovative display.
It’s priced at $479 (approx. £360), which is great value given its distinctive display and automatic movement. Seeing this level of innovation at such an accessible price point is pretty extraordinary, you could almost describe it as some sort of mechanical exception.
Price and Specs:
More details at Mandetbrote.
